This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"!

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

"Honor Diaries" is a riveting documentary about women living in Islam

“Honor Diaries”, by Micah Smith (Brainstorm Media and Women’s
Voices Now), is a disturbing documentary comprising a discussion and interviews
of nine women from Muslim societies fighting for their own freedom and
individual dignity. The film's conversations appear to
be shot mainly in Canada (Toronto).

A number of celebrities, including David Cameron, Hilary
Clinton, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, appear with support. But the main
stars are the women themselves, including Qanta Ahmed (author of “The Land of
Invisible Women”), Malala Youszafafi (Pakistan), Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Raheel Raza, Zainab
Khan, and Raquel Evita Sawaswati. One of
the organizations is Karma Nirvana (link )
Many countries are represented, including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and
Saudi Arabia.

The film starts out by explaining the concept or honor in
some Muslim societies, especially in poorer countries. Women “have” the honor but men “control”
it. A woman has the power to dishonor a
whole family. Other associated concepts
are arranged marriages (which happen in non-Muslim societies, too, as in
India), and, particularly shocking, genital or clitoral circumcision, to keep
women “virgins” for future husbands.
There is a particular moment where one of the women recounts when she
resisted an arranged marriage because she didn’t love the man, and her mother
says, the family will never be able to compel a marriage again.

One of the women from Iran points out that women did not
have to veil themselves until the “revolution” in 1978 with the disposal of the
Shah.

The whole psychology of all of this certain gets
attention. On the surface, it sounds as
though religious teachings are used as an excuse to guarantee men the “right”
to procreate and to have women, who effectively are denied the right to
refuse. In my own head, this would not make sense, to be sexually attracted to someone viewed as socially inferior. But it is more complicated than
that. Muslim societies come from tribal
origins, who faced enemies and privation, and who at one time probably needed
strict rules to guarantee their survival.
Hence, Muslim clerics often write that Muslims must behave for the good
of the group, according to religious revelations, and not to satisfy personal
goals that might even normally seem legitimate.
A strict system of sexual morality, even when excessively patriarchal,
seems to provide a family environment in which most men believe they can remain
engage, interested, and faithful. One’s
own righteous behavior seems to be predicated on the idea that everyone else
must follow it, too. But women say their lives are controlled by men: first
their father, then their brothers, then their husbands, and if the husband dies
(as in battle), even their own sons.

The film does go briefly into polygamy, which would
obviously leave weaker men without any wives.
But that sounds like a pretext to sacrifice men in battle.

All of this reminds me of the reaction of others when I
admitted “latent homosexuality” to the Dean of Men at William and Mary in the
late fall of 1961 and was “expelled”. It
was a big deal that I was an only child and that such an announcement meant the
end of the potential family line of my parents, as if I (like a woman) had some
kind of perverse power to make a destructive choice. Later therapists claimed that, despite the
prodding of heterosexual college students to go along and try to score with
girls, I was using my pronouncement as a way to “step on their toes” and make
them question their own masculinity or suitability, as if there were some sort
of dark plot against future generations in the back of my mind. This was supposed to be my fault, but others were goading to talk about "fantasy life" way back in the early 60s, long before there was Internet self-expression today. My own experience all sounds rather similar to the way Islam
and many other (socially conservative) religions think. This is
about collective identity, not personal responsibility in the modern sense

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